Recent comments

Very important insights!

Nils,

Thanks so much for establishing what should be expectations of a switch rod. My thinking is the marketers get a hold of a new category name and they ride it for profit instead of serving the market. Is there a need for light spey rods? yes, but I wager they did not want to use that name for fear of anglers who need a new category to justify purchasing a rod instead of an actual need. Personally I am a big fan of maximizing utility of each rod. You serve this need well with your article, thank you!

Further, if a switch rod could fit the needs of fishing from a float tube or boat, it would be a fantastic tool on lakes. I am a firm believer in a soft tip for lakes where big fish can get in close to easily snap a leader from a fast rod with too stout of a tip.

Very annoying

This might be the best mayfly pattern ever but its the worst tying video ever. I love pumping electronic music but in combination with cranked up lightspeed tying its nauseating and stress inducing. Keep on posting videos, but phuleeeeze at normal speed and maybe with music less frantic. That would make me able to sit through more than 10 seconds.

Kurt from CO

Bad News for Striped Bass.

I have dubbed this fly "The Punisher", due to tbe fact that the schoolie stripers in my area cannot say no to this fly, olive/white for daytime black/purple for nighttime.

Very nice fly. Easy and cheap

Very nice fly. Easy and cheap to make. A good thing for me since I end up giving so many of my flies away.

Fantastic!

Incredible video! Thank you for sharing!!

Why people hate on indicators..

It cracks me up when dry fly purists look down on indicator fishing as "bobber" fishing. For that matter dry fly fishing is bobber fishing too except the bobber happens to be a fly!. Its easy to detect a take on a dry fly all you have to do is look!... umm sounds kinda like indicator fishing don't it???;) Truth is that nymphing is very subtle, challenging and rewarding once you get the hang of it. Much more difficult to get the hang of than dry fly fishing in my opinion and just as rewarding to me at least. Actually in many ways more so.

Good stuff

Phil and Brian have both revoloutionized still water fly fishing for me, the knowledge they share is priceless, thank you for making lakes and ponds easier to read and fish, great site great info as always.

Yuk Bugs/Pepperoni yuk bug

I like your method to tie the legs in place, I'll be using it from now-on. You can see in the subject line what they are called in the NW-USA...they are a go-to fly for trout, bluegill, and crappie. Great fly!!! Thanks for the tip.

Mouse flies

I've been tying a variety of fly-mice to try. I grew-up on the "shores of Owegena" Cazenovia lake.

Gray Mouse

John, you're right. I tried this fly out in a lake near my house. It no sooner hit the water and a Pike came up and out of the water in a savage strike. Made my day! I decided to try the Gray Mouse on the Willowemoc River in the Catskill Mountains. The area I fished is a "catch and release" area. The trout are huge and beautiful. I cast the Mouse a few times and then it happened. The trout came up and took the fly with gusto. Guess what I did when I got home? I tied a half a dozen more, not that anything was wrong with the Mouse Fly. It was as good as when I tied it. I love tube flies! Best regards, Richard

Additional info on Major Treherne

He lived in Coytrehen House next to where I live, north of Bridgend S Wales and is buried in Bettws Church a few miles away. There are web photos of the house when he had it. It was also home to the Sherrif of Glamorgan at the time. Lots of scandal about the demise of the house but I don't think that appropriate on this site.

Great article

Nicely done and highly useful article, thank you for sharing it! I have some research to do on the different weight classes, as I have coils of shooting head material that are rated at inch/second sink rates. This is a big deal as I go after halibut and rock fish in the Pacific. For instance, I believe my factory shooting head line has a sink rate of 9"/second, which seems fast, but actually works out to about a 72 second countdown for it to reach a 50' fishing depth! That's a lot of time to work on patience.

sparkle shrimp

Nice. I will make use some ideals to make a crawfish for bass...I will share...

This book

You should get that book by Don Dubois "Fly Fisherman's Handbook of Trout Flies" and compare that to this one. Definitely pre-computer, everything abbreviated and almost indecipherable unless you are very knowledgeable of materials, patterns and tying techniques. Makes this book in your article seem user friendly.

Here in the USA

I use alot of UK patterns such as these, Red Tags, Ke-he's, Corixas and all their many, many variations for bass and bream here in Western PA. They work incredibly well, are beautiful to tie and give me valid reasons to buy more materials and tie different patterns! haha

New Leadercalc

Good to see the new version - very easy to use. Another way hardcore detail-oriented fly fisherfolk can personalize their enjoyment. Bravo!

First Bamboo Rod Build Video

Excellent video. Loved the music.

hackle

very helpful thanks.......

Cliffs Loop Demo Video

For Joel and any others who are interested - here are some Dropbox links to a non-professional demo video.
wmv file for Windows ( https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33063725/Cliffs%20Loop%20Demo.wmv )
mp4 file for Mac OS X ( https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33063725/Cliffs%20Loop%20Demo.mp4 )

Comment Notice

Get email notices when comments are posted

Video of the knot tying

It would be great to see a video of the knot tying sequence and the use of the indents filed into the knot tying tools. I have tied this type of knot on to a couple of my Fly Lines and they worked very well. I did this on a fishing trip where the welded tip broke off and I needed to replace the loop.

Jerry French in April's podcast

Hi Jørgen, great article as always on your site. April Vokey has a long chat with Jerry French in one of her podcasts here http://www.aprilvokey.com/podcasts/, scroll down to the February 18, 2016 entry, where they discuss the origin and development from Jerry's point of view.

Nice flies

I have been tying scuds (to where they look just like a small shrimp) in just about the same pattern for years now, and the trout can not resist them. I have started fishing for panfish in a pond near my home and I think I will try this pattern below a strike indicator just to see what will happen. Like I said, it is a killer fly.